Rajkot: The Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) would launch its own housing project, a first such initiative by any corporation in Gujarat, RMC Commissioner Vijay Nehra has claimed.

"With an aim to provide affordable houses to the city dwellers, RMC has decided to launch 'Smart Ghar' project, under which we would construct a housing colony on the land owned by the corporation," Nehra told reporters here yesterday after submitting a Rs 1,745 crore budget proposal to RMC's standing committee for approval.

"RMC would become the first ever municipal corporation in the state to launch its own housing project. People who are not covered in housing schemes of the state, will now have an opportunity to own their house at affordable rates. We will spend Rs 2 crore on this project," he said.

He termed this year's budget proposal as SMART (sensitive, modern, affordable, robust infrastructure and technology driven). In the proposal, Nehra has not proposed any additional taxes or increase in existing taxes.

"It's a big challenge for us as revenue expenditure is more than capital expenditure. But, we hope that we would be able to address the people's problems. We have to be sensitive towards all classes of people. Apart from the housing project, we have proposed animal hostel for stray cattle and setting up of hawkers' zone," he said.